


The Meaning of the Word

by Amarxlen



Series: Lucky0Stars Collections [13]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Destiny Islands, Destiny Trio, Friendship, Kids being kids for a little bit longer, content I wanted in KH3, kh3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:07:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22294540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amarxlen/pseuds/Amarxlen
Summary: The night before the final battle, Riku reflects on when and how Destiny Islands stopped being a prison and instead became home, and what exactly makes it home.
Series: Lucky0Stars Collections [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1308893
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	The Meaning of the Word

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a request to Lucky0stars (on tumblr and Twitter). Link in bio.

_ The Meaning of the Word _

Sitting in the sand, Riku stared out at the ocean. His replica had long since left and Sora and Kairi were still talking with each other on the bent paopu tree. The sun was setting lower on the horizon, signaling the impending nearness of the final battle. And yet for once, he felt no sense of urgency. He breathed in deeply, closing his eyes. His fingers dug into the fine granules of sand. It was strange, having once wanted so desperately, so wholly to escape from this island, that now, there was no place he’d rather be.

He wasn’t quite sure when Destiny Islands, when  _ home _ , had stopped being a prison and became instead a thing he longed for. It might have been when he woke up in Hollow Bastion without Sora and Kairi. It might have been on Hook’s ship when Sora had warned him against the darkness and called him stupid. When it was clear they were on opposite sides in a way that was much more real than when they were children. When Ansem had taken control of his body, when he had to shut the door to Kingdom Hearts and it struck him, more clearly and truly than any other time, that he might actually never go home.

A wry smile twisted his lips. Despite it all, he was still here. He’d finally made it back, finally felt like he deserved to be back. And now he’d have to leave in uncertainty all over again. It didn’t seem to matter that this time they’d actually been given a choice, although what kind of choice was it, to fight in an inherited war or leave countless worlds at Xehanort’s mercy?

Riku opened his eyes and sighed. The tranquility he’d felt was rapidly slipping away. He knew nothing could be done except to give this final battle everything they had… But what could it cost?

His gaze slipped over to the bent paopu tree, surprise crossing his features as he saw it was empty. He sat up to look around the island, but before he could turn fully, someone had thrown their arms around him and yelled, “Sneak attack!”

“Gotcha!”

Riku couldn’t help the undignified noise of surprise he made as he wobbled under their weight. Well that explained where Sora and Kairi had gone. Deciding that three could play at that game, Riku let himself fall backwards, effectively pinning his two smaller friends beneath him.

“Hey, no fair,” Sora protested, while Kairi just laughed.

A smile crossed Riku’s lips. He had needed some time to be by himself (even if he hadn’t technically been alone), but somehow, Sora and Kairi had seen when that need had subsided, and what he actually needed was them instead.

“And sneak attacks are?” he shot back.

He could imagine Sora’s pout as he and Kairi squirmed underneath him.

“Sneak attack is a strategy. You’re just laying on us.”

Riku laughed and shifted just enough that with a little more wiggling, Sora and Kairi could pull themselves free. They situated themselves on either side of him, Sora leaning back on his hands with his legs sprawled, while Kairi was a bit more presentable.

“What were you thinking about?” Kairi asked, tucking some hair behind her ear.

Riku turned back to the ocean. Kairi rarely asked a question she didn’t know the answer to, and this one seemed exceedingly obvious. Sora dug his feet into the sand. They all knew what he had been thinking about, and he was sure it was on their minds as well, but he didn’t want to dwell on it any more than they had to. They’d gathered the guardians of light, and now all there was left to do was fight. It was as simple and complicated as that. So instead, he gave a partial truth.

“I was thinking about how much things have changed.”

Silence stretched between them. Riku didn’t know the whole of either of their journeys, but he knew that none of them had a particularly pleasant past year and a half. It seemed strange that so much had happened during that time. A year and a half… that felt like a lifetime instead.

“Our old racetrack is still here,” Sora spoke up. Riku looked up to see him grinning. There was nothing in it that looked different from how it always did — carefree and wide enough to split his face — but Riku saw the weight behind it all the same. “We still have to even the score.”

Riku snorted. “It’s going to take a lot more than one race to even the score,” he said, smirking.

“Then let’s make this the tiebreaker,” Kairi said. “Winner takes all.”

The boys turned to her, Riku semi skeptically. He didn’t want to think about the implications of this being their tiebreaker race. Sora grinned at Kairi instead and pointed.

“Yeah, winner takes all!”

Riku eyed the race course warily. Nobody had taken care of it while they were gone — it wasn’t something that Tidus, Wakka, or Selphie had ever taken an interest in — and thinking about how much the wood may have rotted made him grimace. Not that they couldn’t cure any injuries at a moment’s notice, but that didn’t mean he wanted to willingly run on something that could result in a broken ankle.

“Ooooor we can just say I win.”

Sora was grinning at him cheekily. Riku rolled his eyes, partially because he  _ knew _ Sora was just trying to goad him into racing, and partially because of course it was working.

“You’re on,” he said, getting to his feet.

The three of them made their way over to the start of the track, taking their positions as though their last race had been yesterday, rather than over a year ago.

“On my count, for the tiebreaker!” Kairi called. 

Nostalgia tugged at Riku’s gut, and he tried to pull himself back to the present as Kairi began counting down. As soon as she called out go, the boys took off, each one heading towards their preferred path. Riku raced across the wooden planks, despite his doubts, and found that although the course hadn’t been difficult before their journey had started, it was almost laughably easy now. He looked over to see how Sora was handling it, and his eyes widened. Sora was nowhere to be found, or rather, he was much farther than Riku had anticipated and it took only a moment to see why.

Sora was gliding across the sand, rather than running. When he reached the platforms leading up to the star shaped tree — that the three of them had built to mark the midway point of their races — he jumped high enough to clear two of them at once.

“Hey!”

Glancing back at Riku, Sora offered a grin and a peace sign before tapping the star of the tree with a single finger. Riku’s eyes narrowed. Two could play at that game. Putting on an extra burst of speed, he hopped across the treetops, skipping over the last several of them to jump directly to the tree. At that point, Sora was already well on his way back to Kairi. Despite knowing that he’d already lost, Riku gave it his all, right up until he rejoined his friends.

“Looks like I win them all,” Sora gloated, hands behind his head.

Riku scoffed. “Only because you cheated.”

“How did I cheat?” Sora asked glibly. “We never said we couldn’t use abilities.”

“It’s true,” Kairi added. “We didn’t.”

“I didn’t think we had to.” Riku all but groaned the words. These two were  _ impossible _ .

Sora shrugged. “Guess you should be more specific next time.”

“Play fair next time,” Riku said, but there was too much teasing in his tone for the words to have any bite. “But I guess you can have this one. After all, that’s the only way you could beat me.” He smirked. He didn’t mean the words, but something about teasing Sora the way he’d used to, about the three of them being back here together… It made him happier than he’d been in a long time.

“Oh yeah?” Sora asked, grin slipping from his face as he mock glared at Riku. “Say that again.”

Neither of them could keep up the act, and before long, all three of them were laughing. It was almost enough to make them forget there was a war, or Keyblades, or even anything beyond this moment. It was enough to make Riku realize that home wasn’t just Destiny Islands. Home was this: laughing with Sora and Kairi over silly things, races that only mattered because they raced together, and—

“The sun’s going down,” Kairi pointed out. They all looked out towards the horizon. Though the sun had started setting some time ago, it was now little more than a sliver over the ocean. Before either of the boys could say anything, Kairi had brushed past them, hopping down from the raised platform and back into the sand. “Coming?” she asked, looking at them expectantly. But they all knew the answer.

Sora and Riku jumped down after her, and the three of them made their way over to the bent paopu tree. Their footsteps echoed over the bridge to the islet, and Riku had the sudden thought that it might be for the last time. He shook his head roughly, as if that would shake the thought loose and free him, but it couldn’t be undone. He watched as Sora and Kairi took their places on the tree before making to take his usual spot.

“Riku.” All she did was say his name reproachfully, but it made him jerk his head towards her all the same. Once she had his attention she patted the bark of the paopu tree. It took him longer than it should have to understand what she meant. With a faint blush on his cheeks, he hastily complied so that all three of them were sitting on the tree.

He wanted to say something. About tomorrow, about how much they meant to him, about how sorry he was that their lives had ever come to this. But the words wouldn’t come.

“Hey Riku?” He jerked his attention towards her again. Kairi smiled at him and asked, “Can you tell us the story about other worlds again?”

Riku blinked at her and then burst into surprised laughter. The mischievous grin on her face told him this was exactly her intention. She knew just how ironic it was in their current circumstances, but tonight… Tonight was a night for pretending they were those hopeful kids again, just for a little bit.

And so he told the story for the umpteenth time, a story they now knew was only a small part of something much bigger. As he explained how each star emerging in the darkened sky was another world, Kairi reached for his hand, and he let her take it. On her opposite side, she took Sora’s hand. Now, more than ever, Riku felt what he should have always known.

Home was this: the islands, the stars, and his best friends by his side.


End file.
